The letter writer demanding repatriation for African-Americans who are descendant of slaves is, like many others hastily weighing in on this sensitive subject, in need of a history lesson. It has long been accepted as documented fact that the vast majority of African slaves, whether they remained on that continent or shipped elsewhere, were originally enslaved and sold by other black Africans.

Almost all of the exported slaves went to Europe, the Arab World and the Americas, only a small percentage ending up in what became the United States. Incredibly, American folklore is rife with valid narratives of black slave-holders, some of whom even subsidized confederate militias when the Civil War erupted!

In the 1970s Alex Haley scored with his great book Roots, but his account of his black ancestor Kunta Kinte being kidnapped by whites in the jungle represented, in accordance with the doctrines of random probabilities, the very tiniest percentage of an enslaved African’s situation and fate.

Instead of bemoaning their status as descendants of centuries-ago misfortunes, today's African-Americans should consider expressing gratitude their ancestors made it across the Atlantic, given 21st Century African misery that leaves even casual observers aghast and horrified.

Martin Crane

New London